1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer user interfaces, and more particularly to a system and method for generating a graphical user interface that supports file peek-ahead techniques.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is often the case that files occupy several screens worth of information when being viewed within a display window. Browsing or editing files in the window becomes tedious causing a user to lose context while searching for specific sections of the file. The user would often have to scroll through an entire file screen by screen by pressing function keys assigned to a “scroll up” and “scroll down” function in an often futile attempt to find the specific section. Graphical interfaces introduced a scroll bar feature to aid the user in navigating large files. A scroll bar represents the entire file and is commonly associated with a display window. A display window can show only a small portion of a file at any one time. The scroll bar can contain a “slider”. The slider's position in the scroll bar graphically indicates the relative position of the displayed portion to the entire file. One scroll bar is often used to indicate relative vertical position, while a second scroll bar can be used to indicate relative horizontal position. Although the slider and scroll bar provide relative positioning indicia of the portion of the file that is displayed in the window, the user cannot easily locate a specific section of the file without scrolling through the file itself.
Some techniques are known in the art to facilitate file navigation. One such technique is a file overview margin, which represents an entire file and is usually adjacent to the scroll bar. The file overview margin displays a graphical indicator, such as a colored block, to serve as a reference marker of a point of interest in the file. The relative position of the graphical indicator within the file overview margin can assist a user to find a specific section in a file. For example, if a source code file is contained in the window, the file overview margin may include red-colored graphical indicators to indicate compilation errors in the relative location of the file. This technique makes it easier for a user to quickly scan the file overview margin in order to identify a number and location of compilation errors within the file. The user can investigate various reference markers by placing a cursor over a particular graphical indicator and selecting the icon such as by clicking. By making the selection, the selected portion of the file comes into direct view within the window, causing other possibly relevant portions of the file to disappear from view.
While helpful, this technique loses much of its effectiveness because the user is required to scroll or jump to the specific portion of the file or file in order to understand the meaning of the reference marker. Moreover, by jumping to the location of the file identified by the reference marker, the user loses the initial position of the insertion point within the file. Additionally, it is not possible to select other reference markers and view the corresponding points of interest within the file without further deviating from the initial position within the file.
Previous solutions, such as Adobe Reader available from Adobe System Incorporated of San Jose, Calif. provide thumbnail previews of each page of a multi-page file. However, a thumbnail preview does not provide targeted context portion about the point of interest in the file. Essentially, the thumbnail preview does not zero-in on information that provides targeted context to the point of interest in the file. Instead, the user is forced to scan at least the entire preview page for context portion. Prior art solutions for tooltips or popup windows provide a hint or short description of a reference marker or the point of interest in the file. The hint or short description is generally far too minimal, leaving the user with no alternative other than to scroll through the file in order to gather context portion relating to the point of interest in the file. The usual information that is provided in a tooltip includes the nature of the reference marker and possibly the location in the file of the point of interest, such as “compilation error on line 36.” The user ultimately cannot resolve the error without more context portion. When the popup window includes a portion of the file, such as showing line 36 from the file as containing the compilation error, an exact rendering of that portion of the file is not provided. Instead, these prior art systems provide a common tooltip or popup window format which does not seek to preserve the formatting that was originally provided for example by the creator of the file. As such, the user is again forced to navigate through the file in order to gather context portion relating to the point of interest in the file.